


i'm half asleep (we're incomplete)

by CamsthiSky



Series: Where's Grayson? [4]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Forever Evil (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Batfamily Feels, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Is Alive, Family Issues, Gen, set sometime after Grayson issue 12
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 19:15:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16165199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CamsthiSky/pseuds/CamsthiSky
Summary: Dick can't find his hoodie.





	i'm half asleep (we're incomplete)

“Hey, Dami?” Dick asks, poking his head into the living room where his two youngest brothers and his sister are all co-habiting somewhat peacefully. Somehow. All three of them look up at his call, but only Cass looks somewhat amused. The other two look kind of annoyed, even though they’re sitting a whole room across from each other.

“What is it, Grayson?” Damian asks, tone just as irritated as his expression. “I’m busy.”

“Have you seen my hoodie?” Dick asks.

For some reason, Damian freezes. Blinks. Seems to come back to himself. When he speaks again, he’s not looking at Dick, and instead giving all of his attention to the open page in his sketchbook. “No,” Damian says, somewhat stiffly. For an assassin trained for birth, Dick think he kind of sucks at lying. “I haven’t seen it.”

Dick’s gaze flicks to Tim, who’s looking at Damian with a frown. Cassandra’s smile has dropped, too. There’s something that Dick’s missing, but he doesn’t have enough clues to put it together yet. Looking back at Damian, Dick says, “O-kay. Well, if you see it, will you let me know?”

“Of course,” Damian says. He’s still not looking at Dick, and he’s being unreasonably agreeable. It sets off alarm bells in Dick’s head. Loud ones. That he can’t turn off. Ones that will keep him awake at night for sure.

But, Dick thinks as he heads down to the Cave to find Alfred, if something about Damian having Dick’s hoodie beside embarrassment, then maybe staying awake to figure it out is a good thing.

* * *

When Dick gets back upstairs three hours later after an exhausting argument with a stubborn Bruce, his missing hoodie is lying across his bed, looking cleaner than he has ever kept it in his life. Dick picks it up in bemusement, turns it over, and just stares blankly.

The door creaks open a little, and when Tim speaks, it’s quiet. Solemn. “He missed you. A lot.”

Dick swallows and tries not to think about dying, about leaving his family in the dark while he went undercover, about not being able to rescue Damian with everyone else, about how Damian must have felt when he realized that Dick was  _dead_ —

“Oh,” is all Dick can say. The hoodie is slack in his hands. The silence in the wake of his realization is stifling, and Dick can’t help but softly whisper, “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah,” Tim says. “I know.”

“You don’t forgive me.”

“No.” Tim’s voice isn’t cold, but it isn’t warm, either. “Losing you was hell, Dick. Especially right after we lost Damian.”

Dick wishes he could say,  _I know_ , but it’s not true. He doesn’t know what his family went through, because he wasn’t here. Dick lost Jason, and then he pretty much lost Bruce because of it. And then he lost Damian, and then he lost his whole family in a completely different way.

He’d been alive, all of them but Damian had been alive, and Dick couldn’t have felt more alone.

But it’s not the same.

“I’m sorry,” Dick says again. It doesn’t make things better.

“Word of advice,” Tim says, and his voice doesn’t shake or tremble. It would be blank if there weren’t this hint of sadness in the undercurrents of his tone. “Don’t say that to Damian.”

* * *

 

Dick knocks on Damian’s door a few minutes later, hoodie still in hand. When he hears a soft, “ _enter_ ,” he opens the door and pokes his head in.

“Damian?” Dick asks, reminiscent of this morning. Damian is at his desk under the window, staring out at the tree leaves glowing from the fading sunlight. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Now is not the best time, Richard,” Damian murmurs. His hand is completely still, not a single stroke on the sketchbook.

“It’ll only take a minute.”

Damian sighs. Still doesn’t look at him. “Fine.”

Dick sits down on the foot of the bed, and stares down at the hoodie with a solemn smile. “I want you to have this.”

Damian’s head snaps up. He scowls as he spots the hoodie.  “Don’t be ridiculous, Grayson, that’s the hooded sweatshirt you were looking for, isn’t it? Why would you look for it only to give it away?”

“I have other hoodies,” Dick says with a shrug. “You should take it.”

Damian’s voice is cold. “I don’t want it.”

Dick’s sad smile never wavers. “Even if you don’t wear it, you should still have it. Think of it like a promise.”

“A promise for what?” Damian asks, voice wary. He’s curled up in his chair now, and his eyes are narrowed in suspicion. Something seems to occur to him, though, and he sits up with curse, eyes widening. “You’re not leaving again, are you?”

“I don’t think so,” Dick says honestly. “At least, not yet. I don’t think I’m recovered enough to even leave the house, let alone the city.”

Bruce’s words on Dick’s lips.

Damian snorts, settling back into his chair. “You could leave any time you wish, despite what Father says.”

“Yeah,” Dick says. “You’re probably right. Doesn’t mean I want to leave.”

“But you don’t want to stay.”

Dick sighs. “Honestly, I don’t know, Damian. I’m super confused about what I’m supposed to do right now, and Bruce isn’t helping. But,” he looks Damian right in those green eyes, “if I do leave, I will always do my best to come back. To you and everyone else in this house. Because I love you.”

Damian hides his face in his knees, arms wrapping around his legs. He says nothing.

“I love you,” Dick repeats. “So much. And sometimes—a lot of times—I miss you and me. Batman and Robin. It was hard, but the two of us were great together, Dami.”

“The best,” comes Damian’s muffled voice.

Dick laughs. “Yeah,” he agrees, standing up. He leaves the hoodie on the bed. He walks over to where Damian’s still curled up, slowly enough that Damian knows he’s coming, and he ruffles the kid’s hair. “The best.”

Damian snatches Dick’s wrist, lifts his head just an inch, and whispers, “Please don’t leave.”

It’s the most vulnerable Dick’s heard Damian in a long time, and it breaks his heart. He can’t promise anything, just like Bruce can never promise he won’t die, because there’s always a chance. It’s happened before, and it may happen again.

“I’ll try not to,” Dick promises. It’s not what Damian wants to hear, but it’s the best he can do. “I’m the Batman to your Robin, right? We’re partners, and I’ll never leave my partner behind, Damian. Not if I can help it.”

Damian doesn’t respond, but he doesn’t let go of Dick’s wrist.

“You want the hoodie?” Dick wonders after a moment. Damian nods slowly, so Dick smiles. “Okay. It’s yours, Damian.”


End file.
